Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Look, while I was rooting for you Buckeyes, I can't say I feel sorry for you. Not after laying that egg. Again.

And when I say again, I mean to the point where I had to check my remote to make sure I wasn't watching a replay of last year's game on ESPN Classic.

When the Bucks went up 10-nothing, I turned to my three Michigan friends I was watching the game with (three of us rooting for Tosu, the other calling us fucking morons the entire game) and said there's no way they're going to let what happened last year - in which they got an early lead then got ass-raped - happen again.

Then they did just that.

I honestly don't get it. Yes, LSU is good, but not that good. Not as good as OSU made them look.

Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, Tressell is a good coach. Yet the last two BCS title games, he's been out-coached while his teams imploded. Case in point: early in the second half, they stop LSU, have a little mo' and are about to get the ball back when back-to-back personal fouls let the Tigers keep the ball, who drive in and score -- game over.

And it's not that I take joy in this (although did I mention I don't feel sorry for Tosu?), it's that I'm genuinely perplexed by the repeat performance.

Oh, and if Tressell thought he needed to give his team a 10 minute motivational DVD highlighting all the disrespect and mocking they were taking from pundits around the country before this game, I can't wait to see how long the next cut's going to be. It's gonna make MEET JOE BLACK look like a YouTube clip.

P.S. And who again were the fucking idiots naysaying Michigan hiring Les Miles. Those people are complete-- oh, never mind.

103 comments:

Well thank you Ohio State... again, you've given fuel to the fire on the Big Ten conference being "weak"....

For those of you who comment here and say that you want OSU to lose no matter what... and that if they win, you'll hate to hear them talk and they'll get the better recruits.... think about this:

The national perception now, is that the Big Ten isn't a good conference. What does that matter you ask? Any team in the Big Ten, who wins all of their conference games will not be highly ranked because the perception is that the conference is weak.

I'd rather lose recruits and have to take talk from TOSU fans than have the entire media continously bombarding us with stories on a weak conference, since they are the people who actually VOTE for the national champion.

Maybe the role of "SEC Team That Gets To Whup Ohio State Lopsided In The BCS Title Game" is just something like James Bond that gets passed from person to person at regular intervals. If so, here's hoping Georgia gets it next year!

Michigan will not be in the top 15 next preseason rankings...at least I hope they aren't. Part of me does not want them ranked at all...or if they are, let it be between 18 and 25. I want to earn a higher ranking, not be given it...besides, being ranked high in the preseason is bad luck for UM.

"And these LSU Tigers resembled the edition from the season's second week when they went to Blacksburg, Va., and laid a 48-7 whipping on a Virginia Tech team that ultimately won the ACC championship." - Drew Sharp.

Well I hope Rich Rod got to work EARLY this morning, because Lester just handed him his 36 month notice. Did it strike anyone else as odd during the postgame when MIles goes into his Stepford trance and repeats "I am fortunate to be the coach at LSU,.... I am happy to be at LSU". I guess those hypnotherapy classes must be paying off.

Before the game last night I started thinking about the whole search fiasco and I got to wondering if the situation had been reversed and Miles had been the favorite son who was coaching his alma mater for 7 years, which program could have enticed him to leave Michigan for more money, prestige, and greener pastures? I couldn't come up with any, certainly not LSU or any other SEC team for that matter. Maybe USC would be enticing for the glamor factor, but arguably as our perennial Rose Bowl opponent there would be no bump in his career visability for him to make that kind of a lateral move.

Don't get me wrong, personally I don't like the guy and I certainly think there are better coaches out there, but I think the Miles supporters are sharpening their swords, and Rich better watch his back, he has been served.

On SEC Speed: OSU was flat out coached. This game had nothing to do with speed as evidenced by Wells running past the secondary and last year's Ginn kickoff return. Michigan, OSU, and Wisconsin were as fast as their SEC counterparts this year. Tressel just got out coached, that's where the bucks got beat.

Why the hell can't we beat them??? And on our own turf? It just sucks. Michigan should have taken care of OSU back in November to save them from this disaster.

Rich Rod better take care of business against OSU. They're not invulnerable.

And doesn't LSU lose a ton of seniors? Georgia returns a lot of players. I'm not so sure about defense, but one paper--albeit an Atlanta one--already has Georgia as preseason #1. IMO, that makes sense. In that poll, Michigan is #23 or 24, but what doesn't make sense is that we're be behind Penn St. I won't expect much from Penn St next year.

Another interesting tidbit: this season, Sporting News only predicted one Michigan game correctly. Only One! Can anyone guess which game that was? I'll give you a hint. It rhymes with "Motor Lame."

I do feel badly for my tOSU friends, but not the rest of the tOSU fans.

I am one that did not want them in the game to begin with, for this very reason. Now we have to endure the SEC elitist.

Never mind that Michigan totally dominated Florida, we got no love for that, and it will be erased from thought now since tOSU lost.

I am standing by my protest of the Freep. I refuse to read ANY article at the Freep, particularly Drew Sharp. I cancelled my membership and wrote them the reason why. My IP address will NEVER show up at the Freep. I encourage others to do the same.

Wow. Appalachian St received 5 AP votes. And the good news is that Michigan defeated App St in wrestling!

I don't get why Florida is still ranked so high (#13). I am not complaining about them finishing ahead of us, but they don't really have any really impressive wins except over Tennessee. Other than that, they almost beat LSU.

Don't get me wrong. We had a great win against Florida. Florida is a tough team but it doesn't have a great resume. It's probably just because Florida was ranked high in the beginning of the year.

While watching the game I came to the dawning realization that yes the Big Ten has become weak. Yes I said it. Tosu really didn't play a bad game last night but it showed that the Big Ten has become an entirely predictable conference and when matched against other competitive conferences we always come out looking like shit. This makes me that much more excited that MI hired RR since he will be able to bring MI into the new realm of college football that is played today. The geriatric smash mouth football employed by 80% of the BIg Ten just doesn't cut it anymore with today's speedy recruits.

I also would like to say that I once believe Tressel to be a god among football coaches but now I'm not so sure. How is it that a coach that is so high on values and integrity is not able to prep a team for a game or during the game keep them under control? 6 personal foul penalties is absolutely ridiculous in a championship game and totally uncalled for. Where was the leadership or direction on that sideline? I'm calling it now that last night's game was the beginning of the end of the "Era of The Sweater Vest." If RR can do the things in MI that he did in WVU there may be no stopping the Wolverines in the years to come and Tosu will have to resort to drastic changes of their own.

Forgot to mention I work basically third shift so as I walked into work this morning at 4am I yelled out "O-H." and received a raucous chorus of "fuck you." Then there was this exchange...Douchebag Buckeye fan: "At least we beat MI."I: "Least we beat Florida."DB: "11-2 to 9-4"I: "1-0 vs 0-1 in 2008"Then he shutup.

I know how you feel about our loss to OSU. I was saying all last night and after our bowl game that if Henne and Hart were healthy against OSU, UM would have destroyed OSU. Oh what i would give to play them again.

Where is that troll srudoff? I'd guess in a truck stop bathroom licking his wounds.

Oh well, thanks again Buckeyes for embarrassing the conference on the biggest stage in college football. Yeah, you can rub 1-6 in our faces and tell us that at least you weren't playing the Capital One bowl, etc, but c'mon, 2 years in a row looking like chumps on national TV? That's pretty bad.

At least you can take solace in the fact that once RichRod gets rolling, you Buckeyes won't have to worry about getting embarrassed in any more National Title games.

I loved seeing the look on the OSU fans faces when all hope was lost. Cheesy looking losers. Grown men wearing OSU jerseys everywhere. HaHa. I bet they can't believe they spent all that money AGAIN to see that outcome.

My guess at pre-season polls next year will be that tOSU will be top 10 easily if they don't lose the stud juniors to the NFL. Perhaps Tressel can be successful to them with the unfinished business speech. The media needs and likes a Big 10 team that high in preseason polls. Maybe even top 5 if they have a convincing spring session. Michigan will be top 25, and will climb nicely throughout the season. Florida will be top 10- they lose next to nobody, UGA will be top 3- also nearly no one is leaving, SoCal will be top 3- stable is full to replace those leaving. I don't know about the teams in the Big 12 - OK, Mizzou, KU, and Texas- BiB can speak on that and who loses who and where they'll likely be preseason.

I was rooting for OSU until halftime when they showed that stupid pontiac game changing play with the App State. Some doucher Tosu fan comes up to me and starts ribbin on me about Appy state even though he can clearly see me (painfully) cheering on the stache. Never again my friend.

Our coach resigned after the season. Will Tressel? We then hire a new exciting coach to completely shake things up in the BT. MI will be the savior of the BT and Tosu will fall. Where will you be in 5 years?

will tressel resign after making 3 mnc games in 7 years? i'm sure everyone in ann arbor hopes so.

don't worry, i know how you feel and why you guys say what you say. if michigan had just lost back to back championship games after beating us for the 6th time in 7 years, i'd probably go on and on about them losing, knowing deep down that i was pretty fucking jealous that they actually made it to the big game, while owning our asses along the way. of course i wouldn't admit i was jealous, especially on an osu forum, but if i was honest with myself, i'd know it was true

so i understand where you guys are coming from and would feel the same if we were in your shoes.

can rrod make a difference - hopefully - he won a bunch of games at wvu, although he was only 21-22 against teams that ended the season with a winning record -not too good. he also had problems with his rival, Pittsburgh, something you guys probably relate to. so time will tell on him but i'd be optimistic just in getting rid of carr and debord alone.

How appropriate that LSU managed to spot OSU a (Big)10 point lead before they took them to the woodshed!

And what a piece of crap the BCS is when OSU plays 2 ranked teams all year (and loses to one of them at home late in the year), yet still makes the big game ----- but when Auburn plays AND BEATS 4 teams ranked in the top 10 when they played them (and also goes unbeaten) they get hosed and all you hear is that their schedule was weak? The BCS just plain stinks.

Maybe with a playoff system OSU can hope that someone else will knock off the SEC teams before they have to play them.

or

Maybe we should just go ahead and pencil in OSU v Okla next year - looks like that is the only way one of them might manage to win one???

I find the whole thing fairly puzzling. The imaginary gap between the SEC and the B10 is just that. We're about 50/50 head to head and Michigan's had no trouble with SEC opponents. I think they truly have been a tougher conference top-to-bottom in recent years, but the difference doesn't explain last night's or last year's flops. Why didn't that tough SEC schedule result in blow-outs for Tennessee or Florida? What happened to Arkansas? It's nice fodder for the talking heads, but it doesn't explain anything. And don't even bother with the "speed" argument. It's tired and shabby.

I don't buy the coaching angle, either. Tressel's a good coach who makes smart adjustments. Miles is a panicky, risk-addicted cowboy.

Personally, I think last year's team came out flat after the long layoff, maybe bought into its own hype a little, and got surprised by a Florida team that was better than advertised. This year? Yes, they were an overacheiving team from an underacheiving conference, but, more than anything, I think they just got "the yips." They'd been hearing about the blow-out all year. It was running through their head all night "...don't get blown out...don't get blown out...oh crap, it's happening again...it's happening again...it's happening again..."

This is just my take - OSU has it's priorities screwed up - they forget the big picture. I think they would really rather beat Michigan - than will a National Championship. It's like they put all their hope and preparations into that one game against Michigan - like they peak too soon.

Now, our Wolverines may have lost to OSU in November - but they came ready to play in their bowl game. If I had to chose between seeing what happened on New Year's Day and beating Ohio State - I'd take the bowl win. It gives U of M more credibility in the BIG picture (not just the big ten).

By the way - all this about Tressel being so full of integrity and ethics is just crap. If he really was all that - there is no way his team would've had so many personal fouls. A teams behavior is a reflection of their coach.

OMFG...give it a rest already!!! It's a new year and a new season will be starting before you know it. YES, we lost to Appy State -- fucking move on, Tosu folk!! You've lost back-to-back trips to the BCS bowl -- get over it!

All this 'worry' about Big 10 vs SEC....and the bulk of it being placed on UM and OSU. Wake up people!!! Why don't you start jumping in the asses of the REST OF THE CONFERENCE??? Don't you think it's time the OTHER teams start pulling their weight as well??? The conference needs to toughen up ALL AROUND. (Don't hear much more bitching about the poor Illini showing, do we. Hmmm)

Don't get me wrong, I was certainly hoping for an OSU loss last night. (Maybe Tress should change out of his 'lucky' sweatervest once in awhile.) I've taken alot of abuse over the years for living in that state as a Michigan fan -- fuck the Bucks. I would have GLADLY rooted for ANY other member of our conference had they made it that far: PSU, Ill, WI....well, maybe not MSU.

(I'm with dabraylon on his posts.) First respose I received from any and ALL Tosu's I know: "Yeah, well we still beat Michigan."

this isn't the time or the place to argue penalty calls: LSU won fair and square. The personal fouls that you talk about making a bad reflection on Tressel were his players being overly agressive a coupla time (ok, 5 times). It happens when you're angry and passionate (plus LSU was pretty much at home).

Tressel is a fucking mob boss. He puts on this front and makes himself and his team look like angels, they'll never do anything wrong, they don't do anything illegal (recruiting wise). They should stop calling him Senator and start calling him The Boss (or some other mafia regime type name).

wing-my intention certainly wasn't to argue about penalty calls. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing last night - after one, two, or even three calls, OSU couldn't find the strength to control themselves.

Personally, I'd be embarrassed by the personal fouls, not making excuses for them.

1 - hitting late out of bounds was very borderline - even the crappy fox announcers wondered about it. funny thing is that i thought lsu hit us out of bounds two other plays later in the game and it wasn't called.

2 - facemask against lauranaitis - wasn't intention IMO - he dove and got the side of the facemask - good call but can't say it was anything intentional or malicious

3 - roughing the punter - stupid fucking play by spitler - but again was trying to hurt the guy - just way over agressive and stupid

4 - hit to the head by heyward - definitely legit and was malicious

5 - hartline's pf in the redzone - they NEVER showed the play - fox was horrible on it's replays - so i can't comment on it

but overall you have one call that was borderline, 2 that were aggressive and not malicious, one that WAS malicious, and one that i never saw

i don't see how these 5 calls make coach t into some goon coach in any way shape or form.

on an aside, how was highsmith, NOT called for a blow to the helmet on the play where boeckman fumbled? hell ask shawn crable if that's a penalty. i was surprised it wasn't called.

anyway, it IS a new year and props to dtw2phx - we SHOULD be calling out the rest of the conference to win some fucking games.

For those wishing tOSU not to be in the game in the first place… hold on a second. It would be far worse for the Big Ten if a one loss, conference champion was passed over for a shot at the National Championship in favor of two multiple loss teams. tOSU was outclassed and out coached last night, and lots of us saw it coming, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to be there as a symbol that the media and the powers that be in college football still hold the Big Ten in high regard. What would you rather have? A blowout of your rival in the title game, or the national title not even in the realm of possibility, i.e. the WAC, MAC, C-USA, Mountain West, Big Sky, Sun Belt, etc. whose conference champs can go undefeated and still not make a BCS bowl. I’m not saying they deserve that shot, but it’s a fact those conferences are forced to live with.

Let’s be realistic here. I have spent the better portion of the morning scrolling through a number of articles, and don’t get me wrong, there are some Big Ten haters out there, but I’ve also seen a lot of “this wasn’t about SEC speed, Ohio State was just out coached,” from the SEC blogosphere. That’s about as accurate an account as I could give myself. No talk of conference superiority, no “SEC speed” talk as if everyone from a red state in naturally athletically superior, just an honest viewpoint that was as respectful to tOSU in defeat as they were to LSU in victory. Ohio State got beat handily last night, but at least in going down they dispelled some of the rumors that have hampered the perception of this conference. That can’t be a bad thing.

(I made the second one up. I tuned him out after he opened with "Hey B10, are you ready to concede after the last 4 BCS beatdowns that you suck." Also, he inflated USC's score against UM by 6 points. Dickwad.)

So thanks, OSU, you have given me more reasons not to listen to blowhard radio jerks.

If you had won at least we could've said we'd lost to TWO National champions this year.

But now, well, not so much. All APP St proved was we were unprepared as a team. Last night proved you were outcoached and outclassed.

Ham,I too once viewed The Sweatervest with great reverence. Now I'm starting to wonder who writes the first column about him not being able to win the big game. Is it fair? Probably not. But I can't help to wonder, what did LSU throw at them that they hadn't shown before? The answer: nothing. It wasn't like LSU came out with a different scheme as we did against Florida. They played the exact same way they have all year. And it can't be blamed on talent or speed, so it has to be coaching and execution.

Whets, If you're around, I feel for you and the other Bucks fans I've come to know and respect. Those not so enlightened Buckeyes can go blow goats. Oh, wait, that'd be like a reward for them, wouldn't it?

I know everybody is all fired up after the bowls, but lets be realalistic. There are likely to be serious transitional growing pains in our near future. I'm as excited as the next guy, but I don't buy for a second that *anybody*, including and especially RR, has any idea how this is going to play out.

the big ten isn't "weak" as much as it is "outdated". anyone else remember the '70's? Bo or Woody would take their highly ranked team to the Rose, then lose 17-10 to an unranked PAC team that threw the ball 35 times?

well, it's deja vu' all over again.

and today, that's the big difference between tosu fans & michigan fans. michigan has been running an outdated offensive & defensive scheme for the last 4 to 7 seasons. AND michigan fans know it.

so has tosu, but tosu fans don't know it, or can't bring themselves to face it.

tosu's success has been almost entirely on the backs of other, outdated big ten teams (how many of tosu's wins over "ranked" teams include Purdue/NU/Iowa/et al). Tre$$el has been the most successful coach in the conference the last 5 to 7 years. and in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king, right?

however, his pre conference record is pretty much going 1-1 w/UT & a bunch of MAC level schools. the bowl wins are over miami (larry coker's where now?), KSU, Ok State, and ND. (off set by three poundings by SEC schools).

point is while tosu has been far better than michigan or wisconsin, they haven't beaten anyone in a long time that you would consider a powerhouse today (UT, the 2005 "signature win", finished w/ 4 losses & struggled w/ Iowa in the Alamo).

last night's game, like last year's game, was a coaching problem. first, it starts w/ recruiting & scheme. getting guys into the NFL is nice, but they have to play in a scheme @ the college level that is competitive w/ someone other the JoePa/Lloyd/Bret Bulimia level of coaching imagination. in games against up tempo, college type spreads, the record isn't so hot (in addition to the beatings by SEC schools, PSU & UT running the spread, there are losses to NU & Purdue, teams that didn't have a player that could have started @ tosu).

there's also a coaching problem w/ making adjustments against spread teams. in both BCS games, sweater had no significant adjustments to address or stop the other team. tosu ran the same offense both halves. there were some defensive tweaks that were effective in the second half, but LSU's counter moves ended up negating those.

and if the frosh wideout for LSU hadn't broken his route in, instead of breaking out like Flynn thought he would? no pick to the 11, no TD, and you have as big of rout as last year.

Sweater, like Bob Stoops (another good YoOh boy) has mastered his conference but has not kept up w/ the others. no arguing we/ve sucked by comparison. however, that doesn't mean tsou has been "good" by any objective standard. getting pasted in the bowl two years in a row would lead an objective person to question things from the top down.

we, either by luck or fate, have seen that (everything happens for a reason & the app st debacle may end up having a silver lining in the years to come) we are out of date and need to do something about it.

Dude I love that show. I don't like sitcoms as a general rule, but that show is one of the most underrated on television. It absolutely rules. And I've got those florida shirts coming, I promise. Two days max.

Sru,While the facemask on Vaginitis (Sorry, the guy's a stud, but I couldn't pass that one up. Ziiing!)wasn't maliicious, he held on a bit long making it flagrant and therefore the 15 yds was justified.

Srudoff...you whine too much the called us jealous. Why would Michigan fans be jealous when we have a winning record over the "cream of the crop" Conference SEC while you guys, you great sweater vest wearing Buckeyes still have yet to beat the SEC especially on the biggest stage?

Srudoff YOU know deep down inside had Michigan's offense been healthy and had played the way they played against Florida, your lovely Buckeyes would have been crushed.

On another note, in my opinion, this isn't going to be an easy year for Michigan but it wont be terrible. We'll still make it to a bowl game and everything. I'm thinking towards the end of this season we will really have the ball rolling. Will R2 beat OSU in his first season? I don't know, we will all just have to wait and see.

joshua - definitely a legit call on james - wasn't questioning that at all - i would have called it 100% of the time on that tackle. someone else mentioned the 5 personal fouls as an indictment on jt - i was merely stating that they weren't 5 miami of florida type personal fouls so not really an idictment on tressel.

breaston - you can hang your hat on being able to beat the sec - except when the season starts - we all have 3 goals, beat um/osu, win the big ten, win the national championship. beating the sec isn't in that equation unless it's part of #3. beating a 4 loss florida team in the outback bowl isn't the same as losing to the national champs, a team that also beat florida. don't get me wrong, i'm GLAD you beat florida and I was actually rooting for you to beat florida.

do i know deep down if michigan was healthy if they would have beaten us? on paper probably - i think jt was in lloyd's head though (perhaps the sec is in jt's head) and I think that has a LOT to do with our recent success. we've beaten you before with the lesser team, so who's to say it wouldn't have happened again. i DO know that jake long was fully healthy and looked horrible against heyward and especially gholston. i also know that, while your offense, mainly 2 guys, were not healthy, your defense was healthy and couldn't stop beanie to save their lives. the score could have easily been 21-3 had jt not taken a knee at the end.

SIC - your best post ever. and i agree with it all - except i'd consider our recent bowl win against ND and our win against you last year as wins against powerhouse opponents. yes you lost to usc in the bowl but you were still a very good team. jt needs to get a qb coach and someone with more imagination at oc and dc.

Srudoff... I never mentioned anything about our defense. The defense this year wasn't good and it was not good against florida thus the 35 points they hung on us. Jake Long only allowed one sack and that was from Vernon Gholston so he did just fine. You failed the goal winning the National Championship and Florida had three losses, we gave them their fourth so we weren't playing a four loss team. Prior to the game that was just one game more lost than the team you lost to in the same conference.

breaston - you never mentioned the defense for a reason. it takes both units plus ST to win a game. also, you beat a florida team that ended up with 4 losses - that's a fact, anything else is just semantics.

we did fail our final goal - two straight years we reached goals 1 & 2 and failed the 3rd. still i'm proud of them for even reaching the championship game with a team that lost 2 #1 draft picks, a 1000 rusher, the heisman trophy winner and was picked to finish 3rd in the big ten.

katie - if you read yost's original thread about backing the bucks - you'd have seen that the group hug was over a while ago - most people on here said there's no way they'd root for us - can't say i blame them though.

Sru, I did, it just seems even more inflammatory here today then yesterday. I am a lover, not a fighter, so I squirm a bit when things get heated. I would just prefer to find the good in things. There is always something good to find, even with the Buckeyes :o)

According to my schedule the group hug's been over- we're onto full- blown debauchery and drunken naked monopoly by now. (You did what with the hotel?!)

Oh, wait- that's the social calendar for my house. Oops.

As an aside from my witty and scandalous banter (and if you don't find it witty please refrain from cluing me in. I also believe myself to be an Evil Genius, I regularly perform Red Hot Chili Peppers covers on the accordion to raucous standing ovations , I'm a master of interpretive dance and think I'm being stalked by the Ewe Mafia for my propensity to wear woolen sweaters. Oddly enough, I'm okay with this.)

Anyway, back to my original point. I was absolutely shocked by the number of Buckeye fans in East Lansing last night. Every other person in a packed BW3 had on a Buckeye jersey or shirt of some kind. It would've been disconcerting had I not been smirking at the reactions I got to wearing a Michigan shirt in a Moo-U bar to watch a Buckeye NC game. Oh, and I found out what happens to the not-so-hot chicks who're LSU fans. They migrate to Michigan State.

Apparently, Tressel gets his teams so wired before the game, that they start to melt down sometime after kick off when the hyped up adrenaline wears off. Don't know if anyone that reads this blog knows who Charlie Pell was, but when he was the coach at Florida back in the early 80's, he had the same knock against him when playing Georgia every year. The game meant so much to him, the team and the fans, that by the time the game reached halftime, the players were burned out. He had the team so hyped up about the game, that they peaked in the first quarter while UGA just kept plodding along. More times than not, UF was the better team, but despite big leads, UGA always came back to win. Extremely frustrating is an understatement. I see this as the same problem with OSU. They are so keyed before the game, that they just peak at the wrong time. If you can outlast the onslaught by OSU to start the game, then you can probably beat them. Florida & LSU play games all season where they have to come from behind at different times to win, and learn how to cope with the difficult game situations. I don't think OSU has been able to gain this experience that is needed to win the realy big games, as they dominate most of their opponents, and never have to come from behind to win games. When they do, like last night, they have nothing left to get over the hump. I think Tosu is every bit as good as any other team, but they lack the every week big game experience that the SEC teams go thru.

Example: Capital One Bowl last week. UF fell behind, went ahead, fell back, tied the game, fell behind, went back ahead, hanging in with UM for the whole game, and still had a chance to win at the end. When you play games like this every week, you just get mentally tougher. Other than the UM-OSU game every year, they do not face that kind of adversity. When they do, they fold. If OSU can find a way to overcome this obstacle, then they will win their next MNC.

All of you smarmy Big 10 losers need to shut up and take the medicine. YOU'RE PATHETIC. Oh sure - point to the ONE GREAT BIG "SHOCK AND AWE" WIN over our 5th-best team. Then STFU! And get rid of the slow white guys. Or just get used to keeping your mouth SHUT and being completely irrelevent. Either way, STFU!!! You've got NOTHING to say. PERIOD.

Hmmm... well, once the acceptence and the depression set in, maybe you'll actually think about the root cause of the problem instead of the rhetorical "jingling of keys" at each other (and at me).

Do ANY of you think you need to change anything? AT ALL? Or are your football programs just fine, thank you very much? All the introspective forays into the depths of your navels is absolutely ridiculous.

Just exactly WHY IS IT that the SEC (and just about everybody else, according to Herbstreit) thinks you're a joke? Can you come up with anything? Do any of you actually know ANYTHING about football?

Have you ever been to any SEC games? Lived in the SEC?

You are CLUELESS. Sure, there have been some great Big 10 teams before - but you're still CLUELESS.

In the SEC, we do something about our problems. We don't sit around and cry, and we damn sure don't repeat the mistakes. YOU (tOSU) DID. That's the joke. And you still don't get it. The A2'ers don't get it either. Most are trying to figure out if they like it that tOSU lost again. GMAFB...

Think about it - we have EIGHT coaches that could get a job in 30 minutes. You might have TWO. Why is that?

And if you have what we "yearn" for (which I highly doubt), then what are you doing here? What do you care? We DON'T care what you think. Plain and simple, don't bother wasting anymore of your time. I for one won't bother reading anymore.

Sorry about that. I love Lloyd. He's a good man and a good role model. One would be hard pressed to find another coach like him. And I loved that win against Florida.

It just eats me up inside that we haven't beaten OSU in four years. If RR beats OSU and even wins a NC, I will be ecstatic. It would be friggin awesome. It would have been better if Lloyd had won those games though, and with Henne, Hart, and Long. Maybe I don't handle change well, but these are four figures that have come to define the character of Michigan football the past few years, even if the results on the field weren't so satisfying.

It was like what someone in the NY Times (I think) wrote about Michigan in the preseason: it's a program with a heart. We like these guys, and we wanted them to win because they deserved it, in a way. A win for these guys would have been a win for all generations of Michigan football.

Maybe I'm waxing poetic on the departure of a few players and a coach who were good guys. I know that I am definitely exaggerating. Again, I want RR to win big. But this post below an mlive news article caught my eye:

"pryor is in like flynn.... I LOVE this move. Mary Sue Coleman is a ruthless genius in disguise. She just hired a crafty SOB... I LOVE IT! We are going to RULE the world just like U of M folks should. We are the BEST. WVU is such a poor poor pity.... they loose both of their best coaches to us and now we are RAIDING their recruits and getting better ones too.... what a bunch of sorry bastards. Rodriguez is better off getting out to a place that is full of class tradition cash but missing one thing. THE RING! THE PRIZE!

I WOULD DO ANYTHING, just like Roger Clemmens or Barry Bonds or Bill Belechik to WIN... ANYTHING.... thank the LORD we got ROD. He will get us the ring

Its all that matters"

It's not all that matters. I want Michigan to win with integrity. I do think that RR some integrity; he just hasn't shown it so much, although he does expect a lot from his players in all aspects.

srudoff said... tennessee fans cried about peyton losing the heisman to a defensive player

I'll get on that bandwagon - In 1997 Peyton WAS the best player in the nation, and it was an absolute travesty and insult to him that he did not win the trophy, and I'm no Manning fan. Woodson may have been a great player, but he was not the equal of Manning. If those same Heisman voters could have chosen this year's national champion, they would have voted for OSU, just so the SEC did not win the championship 2 years in a row. Too bad Manning & the Vols did not play UM, as I believe Manning would have shredded your defense, Heisman winner and all. He was that good.

What the hell is going on??? I know there are some Martin apologists here but you mean to tell me that our fucking AD couldn't phase the stadium construction in such a manner which minimally interrupts renovations but preserves tradition?

Martin's mandate to make the department self sufficient is imposed in such a manner that the mandate says to hell with the graduates???

I'd love to see someone try to defend the athletic department on this one! Drew Sharp should have a freakin field day with this.

Not that it matters to the Heisman trophy, but Woodson showed up to play in his Bowl game. Manning made Nebraska look good. People point to the number of touchdowns that Manning threw but Woodson must have stopped easily that many touchdowns which gives the same net effect.

"I'll get on that bandwagon - In 1997 Peyton WAS the best player in the nation, and it was an absolute travesty and insult to him that he did not win the trophy..."

I beg to differ. Woodson made a good team great. Manning made a good team only, well, good. Peyton does not have that special something that elevates those around him. He exhibited that fact at Tennessee, and he has shown it at Indy. If not for Reche Caldwell's dropped pass and a no call pass interference Peyton's still looking for that first ring.

He's a terrific player, and a great leader don't get me wrong, but his reach stops at the end of his arm. Truly great players reach out and elevate those around them.

He was unquestionably the best player out there each and every time he stepped on the field. He singlehandedly won several of those games and thus a national championship. The man was a pure thoroughbred. Now what happened when he went to the league I have no clue, but for 4 months in 1997 the man had no equal.

93, I got that email. I would be so pissed if I was graduating this spring. I realize that it might be difficult to work around a construction schedule that already must work around a yearly football schedule, however after at least 4+ years of expensive education, I would certainly expect to graduate in the tradition. Sad. I was also sad to read that graduate school graduates are only allotted 4 tickets! I will have a number of pissed off people in my life when that time arrives!

Honestly, the graduation ceremony in the Stadium was one of the least meaningful experiences of my time at UM. It was completely faceless and anonymous. Can't say I have a better solution, given the numbers of the LSA graduating class, but graduating at Eastern wouldn't be it.

I love it that Yost allows inbreds like thbdthrtr to post here. I can only guess that his screen name came as a result of his toothless face smacking the keyboard after passing out from drinking a 1/5 of moonshine and having sex with an immediate family member.

Michigan has owned the SEC over the last 7 or 8 years d-bag. Now, crawl back into that hole and don't come back until your family tree branches out or your whore mother learns how to deliver my pizza in 30 minutes or less.

Joshua - I hate Manning, a lot. I think he's an arrogant prick. I also think that of his brother and Dad. I should feel bad for thinking this, but I'm glad his Dad got his ass kicked when he was QB for the Saints and I'm glad Eli sucks ass as a QB for the Giants and the Chargers (who drafted Eli) are looking much stronger. BUT to say Peyton doesn't elevate the talent around him is a damn joke. Marvin Harrison is a short, somewhat fast receiver, but his chemistry with Manning make them one of the best QB-WR tandems ever in the game. That chemistry is almost eery. Look at Peyton's other targets- all generally good, but not studs without Manning. Manning has already proven himself to be one of the better QBs to ever suit up in the NFL as compared to the guys in Canton at this point in their careers.I also don't want to take anything away from your Brady. He's damn fine as well and also one of the very best, but team owners have surrounded Brady with some of the best receivers in the game today, not good borderline mediocre receivers. Not like Manning's owners. Sure, working with Manning, Harrison is putting up Hall numbers, but I sure as hell don't see him doing that anywhere else without building that chemistry that Manning developed with him.

Srudoff - I think what whoever the poster was talking about regarding whining and actually doing something about it, was where is the buzz in Columbus for change? JT has a BCS trophy - and that was a damn fine win, but he's shown up twice in a row without he and his team doing their homework. He has the tools, the know-how, and the ability to effect change to great lengths in Columbus, why isn't there a demand that he do so? Nothing to be ashamed about losing in the MNC game. No other team in America, except LSU got as far as tOSU did, but having had a chance to bring home the trohpy twice, but not doing so, it sure seems like fans are pretty quiet. Almost like they're content with just saying, "But we beat Michigan!" and "We made it to the MNC game!" I can see that type of attitude from my school (USCe) since we've never even sniffed a BCS bowl, but not a team with a storied tradition like you guys have. No offense, but you guys should be wanting some assed kicked.

Here's my problem with the Heisman. It is supposed to be the best player in D1A Football, not the best running back, quarterback or wide receiver. You'll never hear a lineman in the running and it's very rare that you hear a defensive guy in the running. I think part of the reason why Woodson won it was because of his play on both sides of the ball.

Ok so the buckeyes loss two national titles in a row. But wait a minute as least we were there, also big ten champs whats Michigan second losers to the Buckeyes. Also should I mention your loss to App. State, also to Oregon. But I am sad because we (OSU) lost our 3 best players, Lloyd Carr, Mike Hart, and Chad Henne. But that's right OSU is terrible we lost two BCS National championship games, but we beat Michigan 4 years in a row. OHIO

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